Sister — BPD?

[Ozzie101]

I usually post in the relationship thread, as my main issue is with my uBPDh. But I have mentioned my sister before.

As a teen, she was anorexic. Living with her in those years was a nightmare. She raged, manipulated, was emotionally and verbally abusive. After numerous hospital stays and time at a therapeutic ranch, she seemed to be fine. She graduated college, got married, had four beautiful kids.

But there were occasional flashes of the old her in her attitude and behavior. He’s best friend is also close with BIL and there were reports of drinking, overspending and other issues.

Three years ago, she took a handful of Tylenol. Ended up going away for 6 weeks to an inpatient rehab center.

This weekend, it happened again.

Her oldest daughter’s 17th birthday was Saturday and my sister made reservations for the whole family at a local restaurant. My unit and I weren’t able to go (I’m dealing with health issues), but everyone else did — except my sister. Instead, my BIL (an ER doctor) returned home Saturday morning after a shift and found she had gone off to their lake house by herself. Very odd.

Monday morning, BIL called the middle sister — PDsis had taken a whole bottle of Tylenol at the lake house. BIL works in another city and, as head of the ER, he had to wait for someone to take over. So, since she was closer, middle sister drove up, got PDsis, and took her to a hospital in our city. She’s in the ICU with potential liver damage.

On top of this, their middle daughter (aged 14) is now anorexic. My dad thinks that might have triggered this latest incident.

Anyway, the number of things that have happened make me believe her eating disorder in teen years wasn’t “it.” It was a symptom of a larger problem. She has big emotions. Any stress or change elicits an outsized reaction.

I feel awful about this for my parents, my BIL (a genuinely good, caring person), especially my nephew and nieces. My nephew is a freshman in college, so not at home anymore, but this is still a trauma. And my nieces. One is obviously struggling already — now this? The 17-year-old has had to take on more than she should. And the youngest is not quite 13. Sweet, shy girl. I don’t know how this is impacting them or what they’ve been living with over the years.